Letters: Did Angels make the right moves?

Most Angels fans are probably scratching their heads at Arte Moreno’s decision to retain Jerry Dipoto and Mike Scioscia, while firing bench coach Rob Picciolo and hitting coach Jim Eppard. Here’s my take:

Picciolo must’ve been the guy who traded for Tommy Hanson and signed Joe Blanton as a free agent when real major league caliber pitchers were still available last off-season. Eppard must’ve been the guy who signed Sean Burnett and Ryan Madson, although both were injured and Madson would never pitch an inning of the 2013 season for the Angels. One or the other of the two coaches must’ve been the one who gushed to the media, when the season began, that the Angels would win because their offense would outslug the opposing team, while their stellar outfielders would climb walls to turn home runs into outs.

Arte holds his management folks to high levels of personal responsibility. So, obviously, Picciolo and Eppard have to atone for these miscues with their jobs. Why else would Arte fire a bench coach and a hitting coach when the most dire problem the Angels have is their lack of pitching?

Jeff Pollak

La Crescenta

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So Mike Scioscia is retaining his job for 2014 but Don Mattingly isn’t sure about his.

Apparently there are different standards in L.A. as compared to L.A. of Anaheim besides the silly name of the latter.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

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The Angels’ shakeup of the coaching staff should have started with pitching coach Mike Butcher, whose only claim to success seems to be leading the league in visits to the mound in the most obvious of situations.

Mike Hoff

Long Beach

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With the expected announcement that Jerry Dipoto and Mike Scioscia will be back in 2014, Arte Moreno capped off the week with several other key business decisions. Bernie Madoff will remain in charge of investments and Rod Blagojevich and Anthony Weiner will head up his ethics and standards division. Enron will supply power, and all loans will go through Countrywide.

Also, Joe Blanton will start opening day.

Marty Foster

Ventura

Blue October

What I learned from the TBS broadcast of the NL division series: The powerful Atlanta Braves played some overmatched, plucky team from somewhere in California.

TBS: Terrible Broadcast System.

Rob Campbell

Palos Verdes Estates

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Juan Uribe’s and Kenley Jansen’s heroics in winning the division series were impressive. However, I couldn’t help but think that Don Mattingly’s original choices for their jobs were Luis Cruz and Brandon League.

Greg Hatfield

Temple City

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Bill Plaschke finally got it right — and then wrong again. He was right in saying it was a very questionable decision to ask Juan Uribe, a notoriously poor bunter, to put himself in a two-strike hole once again because Don Mattingly, like his mentor, Joe Torre, is in love with sacrificing precious outs to move runners up a base.

But he was wrong to call the decision to start Clayton Kershaw on three days’ rest a panic move. One, pitching Kershaw at home is a no-brainer. Two, ending it in four means we don’t have to face the Braves’ best pitcher, Kris Medlen, again. And three, Greinke’s a pretty good backup in case we didn’t win.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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I wish Don Mattingly had been the Cardinals’ manager in 1985. Maybe Jack Clark would have bunted.

Craig Poletti

San Dimas

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When Magic Johnson playfully responded to the prospect of contract negotiations with Clayton Kershaw in light of his continuing success by saying “What’s a few more zeroes?” he sounded like a person with little concept of the value of money.

I offer this explanation to Magic of what “a few more zeroes” might mean: Kershaw is set to earn in one year what it would have taken Sandy Koufax 250 years to earn.

Kevin H. Park

Encino

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Can we please put a brake on these comparisons of Clayton Kershaw to Sandy Koufax?

Kershaw is an outstanding pitcher. Perhaps the best in the game today. However, he has not approached the performance level and achievements of Koufax.

In the past two seasons Kershaw’s record is 30-18. Koufax’s record in his final two seasons was 53-17. In the past two years Kershaw had 461 strikeouts, four shutouts and five complete games. In his final two years Koufax had 699 strikeouts, 13 shutouts and 54 complete games.

So, let’s recognize Kershaw as a truly excellent pitcher. But please do not seriously compare him to Koufax.

Joe Hackett

Goleta

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He may be progressing nicely, but he’s still not quite the next Sandy Koufax, so for the time being, let’s just call him Clayton Kerfax.

Donn Risolo

Altadena

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Carpools get free parking at Dodger Stadium. Word from Arizona is that the Diamondbacks are upset about this too.

Ron Tom

Pasadena

The new Trojans

To those critical of the way Pat Haden dismissed Lane Kiffin after the Arizona State loss, observe the sideline enthusiasm of Ed Orgeron and the renewed team energy in the Arizona game Thursday night. Compare this to the recent apathetic Sun Bowl. Haden didn’t fire Kiffin, he fired himself.

Jeff Brown

Laguna Beach

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I should see the USC defense on the back of a milk carton — 1,150 yards and 93 points to the Arizonas. I see Notre Dame’s Tommy Rees getting that arm warmed up.

Darrell Hirata

Gardena

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Funny how with Lane Kiffin gone the Coliseum suddenly seemed devoid of any ruins.

Steve Ross

New York

Forgotten man

Sam Farmer’s Oct. 5 portrayal of Pete Carroll as Steve Sarkisian’s mentor was great, offering a little insight into a man about whom much has been written and a lot of insight into a man about whom too little — at least for our local scene — has been written.

Probably few remember that Steve got his start at El Camino College. He was coached there by a guy I feel is similar in many ways to Pete Carroll — John Featherstone — who helped Steve in 1994 to become a quarterback All-American. After graduating from BYU, where he again set NCAA records as their quarterback, Steve returned to El Camino as a quarterbacks coach. Thus began his coaching career, again under Featherstone.

So sure, give Pete a lot of credit for what Steve has become, but credit also, as I’m certain he would if Steve were asked, El Camino’s John Featherstone.

Steve Switzer

San Pedro

They’re old news

Hey Lakers fans, put down the Kool-Aid cup that P.T. Barnum Jr. is trying to sell you again and snap back to reality. Forget Germany; Kobe could fly to another galaxy like Michael Jordan in “Space Jam” but it wouldn’t change the ending of this movie we have seen before. Remember Payton, Malone, et al. When will you finally realize that N-B-A and O-L-D don’t mix well?

William David Stone

Beverly Hills

Close shave

How about those Boston Red Sox? I haven’t seen a championship team with such nice facial hair since the 1976 East German Olympic women’s track team.

Ron Yukelson

San Luis Obispo

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